Friday, August 11, 2006

Big Brother/Real Sox Back?

Stupid NESN. I'm feelin' all good (despite Wily Mo striking out with the bases loaded, but, hey, at least I knew with 100% certainty he'd do that) tonight, with the Yanks losing, and the Sox looking like a normal team, for now. But NESN decides to compare Lowell's catch (falling into stands, early in game tonight) to stupid Jeter's catch from that crazy game in July 2004, instead of Pokey's MUCH BETTER catch from the same game! It's bad enough that the Yankee media completely ignores the Pokey catch, and uses the Jeter catch to show what he's all about (and they're right: phoniness!), but NESN? A comparison to the Pokey catch would have been perfect. It was a Sox player who made the catch, and he actually had to fall into the crowd, as opposed to diving in. This has ben the single most (all right, one of...) annoying thing for me in the last few baseball seasons. And now NESN--and Remy!--go and perpetuate the myth.

I'd be fine if the media had decided to always show both catches together. "The game with two great catches, between the two top teams. Jeter with the catch of the team who went on to choke, and Pokey with the championship catch." But no. Pokey is ignored. It was a more difficult catch. My opinion.

Moving on: I love the Mike Lowell character in the movie that is the '06 Red Sox. He's like the older brother figure. Not like Wayne Arnold. More like David Hogan. (He just stole third as I wrote that line!) Mature and experienced yet a funny goofball. He's got a steady girlfriend who doesn't quite fully appreciate him, but hey, who can? But that's just because he's perfect in your eyes. But it's cool, because she bakes you cookies and treats you like her own family. He'll give you advice for when you yourself start dating, and give you a cool nickname. He'll drive you anywhere, even if he's with the girlfriend. She doesn't mind.

Is this what older brothers do? This is just what I've seen on TV.

Did you see him kick the ball foul the other day? Comedy gold.

Tonight he got hit in the head by a pitch and then came back to make the incredible catch. Lowell rules.

I think I was right about the Sox being back to normal. When I started this post it was 1-0. Now it's 8-0. Even Wily Mo contributed with his nightly hit.

Classic Tejada tonight. Misses a ball he should catch. Gets mad about it. Big shu, nu results. And Manny continued the streak already. I wanna see this streak go to the 57th floor of the asylum that is Manny World. That's right, floor 57: The Heinz Ward.

No A-Rod, you're not getting off the hook for that game-losing error last night. TJ! And speaking of Yankee foibles I forgot to mention: They totally gave up 19 runs to Tampa a few weeks ago. This blog can't go on any longer without me saying that.

THANK YOU SO MUCH Jere, for your excellent post about Pokey's catch in that game against the Yankees in 2004. It steams me every time they call that "the jeter game," and I always reply: "Pokey's catch was better." And few people seem to know what I'm talking about, and so few seem to remember it. It was a sensational catch that was lost in all the MFY propaganda/hype.

I've always thought the same thing about the catch as weird as it seems Pokey pretty much brought me into baseball I was just interested in him and thats how I became a real fan and that catch was really my introduction. I even remember what i was doing during that game half at my house, half at my cousins. When Jeter made his catch everyone started gushing over how great he was I was like ok Pokey just had a catch just as good if not better than that. I thought it was just because I liked him

Jason--seriously. That was awesome tonight. Every time I see that, I get mad about how Fairfield County is just not allowed to see it. And if they were, so many casual types would lose their shiny new Yankee hats and begin a new relationship with the Sox. One that was meant to be.

Pokey people: So glad I've got support on this! Thanks. I've been saying this stuff since that night, and it's still just known as "the Jeter game" or whatever. Beauty part is, it turned out to be all they had in '04. At the time, all the talk was how Jeter represented the gutty Yanks and Nomar represented the choking Red Sox. We got the laugh last on that one. (Still laughing, actually.)